Genesis 44
Legacy Standard Bible
The Brothers Fall Before Joseph
44 (A)Then he commanded his house steward, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack. 2 Now put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did [a]as Joseph had told him. 3 [b]As the morning light broke, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys. 4 Now they had just gone out of (B)the city and were not far off when Joseph said to his house steward, “Arise, pursue the men; you shall overtake them and say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses to interpret (C)omens? You have done evil in doing this.’”
6 So he overtook them and spoke these words to them. 7 And they said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing. 8 Behold, (D)the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? 9 (E)With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s (F)slaves.” 10 So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, but the rest of you shall be innocent.” 11 Then they hurried, each man brought his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack. 12 So he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and (G)the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they (H)tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to (I)the city.
14 Then Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. So (J)they fell to the ground before him. 15 And Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed interpret (K)omens?” 16 So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s (L)slaves, both we and the one in whose [c]possession the cup has been found.” 17 But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose [d]possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
Judah Remains Instead of Benjamin
18 Then Judah came near to him and said, “O my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and [e](M)do not be angry with your servant; for (N)you are equal to Pharaoh. 19 (O)My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and (P)a little child of his old age. Now (Q)his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, ‘(R)Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he should leave his father, [f]his father would die.’ 23 You said to your servants, however, ‘(S)If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 Thus it happened that when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25 (T)And our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face if our youngest brother is not with us.’ 27 And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that (U)my wife bore me two sons; 28 and the one went out from me, and (V)I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one also from [g]me and harm befalls him, you will (W)bring my gray hair down to Sheol in [h]evil.’ 30 So now, when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us—[i](X)and his life is bound up in the boy’s life— 31 so it will be that when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will (Y)bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow. 32 For your servant (Z)became a guarantee for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, [j]then I shall bear the sin before my father all my days.’ 33 So now, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers. 34 For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me, lest I see the evil that would [k]overtake my father?”
Footnotes
- Genesis 44:2 Or according to the word
- Genesis 44:3 Lit The morning was light
- Genesis 44:16 Lit hand
- Genesis 44:17 Lit hand
- Genesis 44:18 Lit let not your anger burn against
- Genesis 44:22 Lit he would
- Genesis 44:29 Lit my face
- Genesis 44:29 Or sorrow
- Genesis 44:30 Lit his soul is bound with his soul
- Genesis 44:32 Lit and I shall have sinned for all the days before my father
- Genesis 44:34 Lit find
Genesis 44
Living Bible
44 When his brothers were ready to leave,[a] Joseph ordered his household manager to fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they could carry—and to put into the mouth of each man’s sack the money he had paid! 2 He was also told to put Joseph’s own silver cup at the top of Benjamin’s sack, along with the grain money. So the household manager did as he was told. 3 The brothers were up at dawn and on their way with their loaded donkeys.
4 But when they were barely out of the city, Joseph said to his household manager, “Chase after them and stop them and ask them why they are acting like this when their benefactor has been so kind to them? 5 Ask them, ‘What do you mean by stealing my lord’s personal silver drinking cup, which he uses for fortune-telling? What a wicked thing you have done!’” 6 So he caught up with them and spoke to them along the lines he had been instructed.
7 “What in the world are you talking about?” they demanded. “What kind of people do you think we are, that you accuse us of such a terrible thing as that? 8 Didn’t we bring back the money we found in the mouth of our sacks? Why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If you find his cup with any one of us, let that one die. And all the rest of us will be slaves forever to your master.”
10 “Fair enough,” the man replied, “except that only the one who stole it will be a slave, and the rest of you can go free.”
11 They quickly took down their sacks from the backs of their donkeys and opened them. 12 He began searching the oldest brother’s sack, going on down the line to the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s! 13 They ripped their clothing in despair, loaded the donkeys again, and returned to the city. 14 Joseph was still home when Judah and his brothers arrived, and they fell to the ground before him.
15 “What were you trying to do?” Joseph demanded. “Didn’t you know such a man as I would know who stole it?”
16 And Judah said, “Oh, what shall we say to my lord? How can we plead? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins. Sir, we have all returned to be your slaves, both we and he in whose sack the cup was found.”
17 “No,” Joseph said. “Only the man who stole the cup, he shall be my slave. The rest of you can go on home to your father.”
18 Then Judah stepped forward and said, “O sir, let me say just this one word to you. Be patient with me for a moment, for I know you can doom me in an instant, as though you were Pharaoh himself.
19 “Sir, you asked us if we had a father or a brother, 20 and we said, ‘Yes, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one. And his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him very much.’ 21 And you said to us, ‘Bring him here so that I can see him.’ 22 But we said to you, ‘Sir, the lad cannot leave his father, for his father would die.’ 23 But you told us, ‘Don’t come back here unless your youngest brother is with you.’ 24 So we returned to our father and told him what you had said. 25 And when he said, ‘Go back again and buy us a little food,’ 26 we replied, ‘We can’t, unless you let our youngest brother go with us. Only then may we come.’
27 “Then my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife had two sons, 28 and that one of them went away and never returned—doubtless torn to pieces by some wild animal; I have never seen him since. 29 And if you take away his brother from me also, and any harm befalls him, I shall die with sorrow.’ 30 And now, sir, if I go back to my father and the lad is not with us—seeing that our father’s life is bound up in the lad’s life— 31 when he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die; and we will be responsible for bringing down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 32 Sir, I pledged my father that I would take care of the lad. I told him, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, I shall bear the blame forever.’ 33 Please sir, let me stay here as a slave instead of the lad, and let the lad return with his brothers. 34 For how shall I return to my father if the lad is not with me? I cannot bear to see what this would do to him.”
Footnotes
- Genesis 44:1 When his brothers were ready to leave, implied.
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